Liu Jing wakes at 7, feeds her 84-year-old mother and two-year-old grandson and then spends the day watching the boy play in the playground, with breaks for meals and his afternoon nap and perhaps a little TV in the evening.
That’s not unusual for a Chinese retiree, many of whom play an instrumental role in raising grandkids, but Liu, 57, is on board the Costa Atlantica, a luxury cruise ship packed with activities and events that she largely ignores.
"I just don’t have time to do all these,” said Liu, 57, a Beijing resident who sailed with her husband, grandson and mother from Tianjin port late last year. “Everywhere you look on the cruise, you see middle-aged people like me, with small kids."
Lines including Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Carnival Corp. have sent an armada of luxury vessels to China to tap the world’s fastest-growing market, but they face turbulent waters. In addition to satisfying the tastes of Chinese passengers, they sail in the shadow of the region’s increasingly volatile politics. And soon, a new threat will emerge: Chinese companies are building their own big ships.
“Right now it’s a learning process,” said Ken Muskat, chief executive officer at SkySea Holding International Ltd., a Shanghai-based cruise operator. “Everybody is adapting and learning more about what the Chinese market is looking for.”
The number of passengers in China has risen tenfold in five years, to around 2 million in 2016, and the government expects 4.5 million by the end of the decade. Most make shorter trips -- five days on average -- and call in South Korea and Japan, the top two destinations in Asia outside of China, according to industry body Cruise Lines International Association.
With so much potential -- China is still nowhere close to the 11 million plus Americans who cruise each year -- companies are bringing bigger and better ships to the Yellow Sea, tailoring their offerings and seeking new destinations in an effort to persuade Chinese travelers that a cruise is more than just a form of transportation.
Royal Caribbean’s latest mega-ship, the 4,905-passenger “ Ovation of the Seas,” complete with indoor sky-diving and robot bartenders arrived at its new home port of Tianjin on May 4 for the summer season after being christened in China last year by actress Fan Bingbing. On deck, a sculpture of a mother panda reaches out to her cub on the deck below.
"We have still a huge challenge ahead of us to create more consumer awareness of what a cruise is, what that experience is like," said Adam Goldstein, president of Royal Caribbean.
But before China’s newbie cruisers adapt to life on the ocean, the cruise lines first have to adapt to local tastes. And that starts in the kitchen.